Appliance for shotguns.



H. K. MAYER.

APPLIANCE FOR SHOTGUNS.

APPLICATION FILED JULY 20. 1915.

1,179,021. Patented Apr. 11, 1916.

UNITED STATES PATENT curios.

HENRY K. MAYER, OF FORT COLLINS, COLORADO, ASSIGNOR OF ONE-HALF TOCHARLES W. COOVER, OF FORT COLLINS, COLORADO.

APPLIANCE FOR sno'rcruns.

Specification of Letters Patent.

Patented Apr. 11, 1916.

Application filed July 20, 1915. Serial No. 40,961.

To all whom it may concern Be it known that I, HENRY K. MAYER, a citizenof the United States, residing at Fort Collins, in the county of Larimerand State of Colorado, have invented certain new and useful Improvementsin Appliances for Shotguns, of which the following is a specification.

This invention relates to shot gun appliances and has as its primary aimto provide a cartridge chamber which may be fitted into the breech ofthe shot gun and which is constructed to receive a ball cartridge ofrelatively small caliber in such manner that the same may be dischargedby the firing mechanism of the shot gun.

The device embodying the present invention is designed primarily for usein raising ducks and other game and is not, as are devices of thisgeneral class heretofore devised, intended as an auxiliary barrel forthe shot gun designed to permit of the gun being employed as a rifle.

On the other hand, it is an aim of the invention to so construct theappliance that when the gun is broken, it will be ejected in the samemanner as the ordinary shells employed in the gun and therefore in itsuse, after the ball cartridge placed therein has been fired and the gamehas been raised and the shot cartridge in the other barrel of the gunhas been discharged at the game, the empty shell and the appliance willboth be ejected when the gun is broken, and the ordinary shells may beinserted in the two barrels of the gun, and the gun may then be put toits ordinary use.

In the accompanying drawings: Figure 1 is a view partly in elevation andpartly in section illustrating the device arranged within the breech ofa shot gun. Fig. 2 is a perspective view of one form of the invention.Fig. 3 is a vertical longitudinal sectional view through the device, aball cartridge being shown in elevation within the bore of the device.Fig. 4. is a vertical transverse sectional view through the device. Fig.is a side elevation illustrating another form of the device. Fig. 6 isan end elevation of the form shown in Fig. 5.

Corresponding and like parts are referred to in the followingdescription and indicated in all the views of the accompanying drawingsby the same reference characters.

The device embodying the present invention comprises a tubular body 1which is exteriorly of the same diameter and length as the ordinarycartridge shell and in order that the device may be readily andconveniently inserted within either barrel of the shot gun, it isexteriorly tapered at its forward end, as indicated by the numeral 2. Atits rear end, the device is provided with an annular rim 3,corresponding to the rim of the ordinary shot gun shell, and this rim iscontinuous and unbroken for a purpose to be presently explained.

The bore of the body 1 is indicated by the numeral 4 and, if desired,may be rifled, as lndicated at 5, in the same manner as the bore of arifle or other similar fire arm, the bore being flared at the forwardend of the device, as indicated at 6. The bore 4 is of a diameter toreceive a ball cartridge of small caliber, as for example a 22 or a 32,and the rear end of the body is formed with a shallow recess 7surrounding the corresponding end of the bore 4.

The numeral 8 indicates a ball cartridge which is fitted within the rearend of the bore land the rim of this cartridge, inclicated at 9, abutsagainst the wall of the recess 7 at the said end of the bore, the recess being of a depth to permit the rim of the cartridge, if the same isa rim-fire cartridge, to lie flush with the rear end face of the body 1or of a suificient depth to permit the cap to lie flush with the saidrear end face of the body if the cartridge is of the center-fire type.If constructed to receive cartridges of the center-fire type, the boreat is located in axial alinement with the body 1, but if the device isdesigned to receive small cartridges of the rim-fire type, the bore 4 islocated eccentrically with respect to the axis of the body, as clearlyillustrated in Figs. 5 and 6 of the drawings, so that, regardless of themanner in which the device shown in Figs. 5 and 6 is inserted within thebarrel of a shot gun, the firing pin of the gun will strike the rim ofthe cartridge when the corresponding trigger is pulled.

As before stated, the rim 3 of the device is in both forms of theinvention continuous and unbroken and corresponds in every respect tothe rim of an ordinary shot gun cartridge, and after the device has beeninserted into the breech of the gun and the ball cartridge insertedtherein has been fired and the gun is broken, the ejector of the gunwill cooperate with the rim 3 to eject the device or to withdraw thesame to such a position that it may be conveniently removed. It will beobserved, furthermore, that, unlike previously devised appliances ofthis class, the device of the present invention is not provided with anymeans for ejecting the shell of the ball cartridge, which ejecting meansor devices have heretofore been actuated through the ejector of the shotgun and, consequently, the device of the present invention may beinserted within the breech of the gun without any attention being paidto the exact position to be occupied thereby. In fact, in the use of thedevice, a ball cartridge will be inserted therein. and the device may becar ried in ones pocket or in a cartridge belt until it is desired touse the same, when it may be inserted into the breech of the gun in thesame manner as the ordinary shell.

As before stated, the forward end of the appliance is exterior-1ytapered or rounded and the corresponding end of its bore is flared, asindicated at 6. By reason of this construction, tne appliance may bereadily inserted into the breech of the gun and there is no likelihoodthat the appliance at its forward end will become so battered as tointerfere with the free passage of the bullet. Furthermore, by soforming the appliance it is less likely to wear holes in the pocket inwhich it is carried.

Having thus described the inventiomwhat is claimed as new is:

In a firearm appliance of the class described, a body adapted forinsertion into the breech of the barrel of a firearm and provided with acartridge receiving bore, the rear end of the body being provided with acircumscribing continuous and unbroken rim corresponding to the rim ofthe shell to receive which the barrel is gaged, said rear end of thebody being further provided with a recess the Wall of which is flared,the said recess surrounding the rear end of the bore and being of adepth to re ceive the rim of a cartridge to be fitted within the borewith the primer cap of the cartridge located in the same relativeposition to the end surface of the body as would be occupied by theprimer cap of such shell, the said body at its forward end beingexteriorly conoidal whereby to permit of its ready insertion within thesaid breech of the barrel, and the said body at its said end having thecorresponding end of its bore outwardly flared, the forward end edge ofthe body between the flared wall of the bore and the conoidal exteriorsurface of the body being blunt and rounded.

In testimony whereof I afliX my signature in presence of two witnesses.

' HENRY K. MAYER. [n.s] Witnesses:

CHARLES WV. COOVER, CLAUDE C. Corrm.

Copies of this patent may be obtained for five cents each, by addressingthe Commissioner of Patents. Washington, D. G.

